Bill Brown .. Xiamen University
"Above all, my brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned." James 5:12 我的弟兄们，最要紧的是不可起誓。不可指着天起誓，也不可指着地起誓，无论何誓都不可起。你们说话，是就说是，不是就说不是，免得你们落在审判之下。 雅各书5:12
Eric Liddell was the gold-medal Olympic athlete who refused to run on Sunday, and later became a missionary to China, dying in a Japanese concentration camp (his older brother Robert served as a doctor in Longyan City--Leng-Na--of West Fujian).
From watching the movie "Chariots of Fire," you'd never guess that quiet Eric used profanity in his youth--though not for long!
Eric was born in Tianjing, and Robert in Shanghai, but when Eric was 5 the family returned to Scotland, where for the first time in their lives the boys were free to explore on their own without a Chinese Amah to protect them. They quickly picked up some local profanity, which they tried out on their horrified mother.
McCasland, author of "Eric Liddell: Pure Gold," wrote,
'Once he understood that swearing was unacceptable, five-year-old Eric offered a simple solution. 'Just tell me what all the bad words are, and I won't use any of them.' Mary resigned herself to dealing with the problem as it arose, one word at a time.'
Can you imagine if Eric's mother had indeed given him a list of 40 or 50 swear words that he was neither to use, nor even to know? Just imagine Eric trying to not think of them, much less not use them!
As I blunder through life I sometimes think that a nice list of rules would make things simpler, but then again, I don't think I'd care to go through life weighed down by thousands of laws and rituals, like the Pharisees, or Confucius' 3,305 Laws. Jesus certainly rebelled against the rules and rituals, not only taking the whip to the moneychangers but giving a verbal lashing to those religious leaders who enslave people with burdens that they don't help carry.
Not Rules but Example Jesus came not to lay down more rules but to lay down his life as an example. He urged us to walk with him and learn from him, day by day, just as Eric learned from his mother. Jesus said,
"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:29,30 我心里柔和谦卑，你们当负我的轭，学我的样式，这样，你们心里就必得享安息。因为我的轭是容易的，我的担子是轻省的。 马太福音11:29,30
The yoke is easy and the burden is light because He carries the bulk of the burden, allowing us to learn naturally and easily from our Heavenly Father just as Eric Liddell learned from his mother--one word at a time, one day at a time.
Enjoy your day--and learn from it.
See "Favorite Book, Moving, and Song"
www.amoymagic.com
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
The Fragile Folk
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider's web." Job 8:14 他所仰赖的必折断，他所倚靠的是蜘蛛网。约伯记8:14
Last week a gate guard stopped an overloaded garbage truck that was spewing trash onto the street. The driver got out, looked at the mess, and then simply drove off. I've seen this before, so this time I decided to do something about it. I followed him to his destination and photographed the truck, the license plate, and for good measure the driver as well.
"What are you doing?" he demanded.
"I'm writing to the Mayor's Hotline," I said. "You're supposed to pick the trash up, not redistribute it!" When he said he did not know there was a problem, I said, "Nonsense! I saw you get out and look at it, and then drive off!"
He shrugged and said, "I was going to have my wife and daughter sweep it up later."
I drove back home but just as I was parking the car, I remembered Scott White's comments a few years earlier about a bad waiter. "These people lead such fragile lives," he said. "Just one wrong look or cross word from a customer can cost them their job, and maybe ruin their lives. We need to be careful with them, because we've no idea what they're going through."
As I thought about these "fragile folk," my anger changed to remorse. The problem is not just the workers but the system--poorly designed trucks, too few workers, and too much litter thrown daily onto the lawns and streets by citizens who take our beautiful island home for granted. I asked a student at Xiamen University why he threw trash on the ground just a few meters from a trash can, and he said, "We pay sweepers to pick it up!"
I certainly don't take our own area's sweeper for granted. Like many others, he works cheerfully from dawn to dusk, seven days a week, to keep our area spotlessly clean and neat. And even though he works for low pay, he has dreams, and is saving his money, and has often proudly shared about his child in college.
I got back in my car and drove back to the Sanitation Center and apologized to the driver I had photographed. I told him that I'd still write to the mayor's hotline, but not use the photograph, or mention specific places or people, but just the general problem. And then I thanked him for working so hard to help keep our beautiful island clean, and said that I hoped we Xiamenese could work harder to make his job easier by not littering.
The man was surprised, and mumbled shyly, "I just do my job."But it is not just his job, but his life--and in my anger and pride I could have jeopardized it.
These people are fragile indeed--but so are the rest of us. None of us, from the Mayor on down, are so indispensable that someone higher up the ladder could not cause us grief.
Next time I see a problem, I won't ignore it, but I'll be careful to attack the problem and not the person, because lives are fragile--theirs as well as mine.
Related Blog: Judging Without Eyes and Ears
.www.amoymagic.com
"What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider's web." Job 8:14 他所仰赖的必折断，他所倚靠的是蜘蛛网。约伯记8:14
"What are you doing?" he demanded.
"I'm writing to the Mayor's Hotline," I said. "You're supposed to pick the trash up, not redistribute it!" When he said he did not know there was a problem, I said, "Nonsense! I saw you get out and look at it, and then drive off!"
He shrugged and said, "I was going to have my wife and daughter sweep it up later."
I drove back home but just as I was parking the car, I remembered Scott White's comments a few years earlier about a bad waiter. "These people lead such fragile lives," he said. "Just one wrong look or cross word from a customer can cost them their job, and maybe ruin their lives. We need to be careful with them, because we've no idea what they're going through."
As I thought about these "fragile folk," my anger changed to remorse. The problem is not just the workers but the system--poorly designed trucks, too few workers, and too much litter thrown daily onto the lawns and streets by citizens who take our beautiful island home for granted. I asked a student at Xiamen University why he threw trash on the ground just a few meters from a trash can, and he said, "We pay sweepers to pick it up!"
I certainly don't take our own area's sweeper for granted. Like many others, he works cheerfully from dawn to dusk, seven days a week, to keep our area spotlessly clean and neat. And even though he works for low pay, he has dreams, and is saving his money, and has often proudly shared about his child in college.
I got back in my car and drove back to the Sanitation Center and apologized to the driver I had photographed. I told him that I'd still write to the mayor's hotline, but not use the photograph, or mention specific places or people, but just the general problem. And then I thanked him for working so hard to help keep our beautiful island clean, and said that I hoped we Xiamenese could work harder to make his job easier by not littering.
The man was surprised, and mumbled shyly, "I just do my job."But it is not just his job, but his life--and in my anger and pride I could have jeopardized it.
These people are fragile indeed--but so are the rest of us. None of us, from the Mayor on down, are so indispensable that someone higher up the ladder could not cause us grief.
Next time I see a problem, I won't ignore it, but I'll be careful to attack the problem and not the person, because lives are fragile--theirs as well as mine.
Related Blog: Judging Without Eyes and Ears
.www.amoymagic.com
Monday, May 11, 2009
Leaning Glass & 5-Pointed Snowflakes
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." Isaiah 64:8
耶和华阿，现在你仍是我们的父。我们是泥，你是窑匠。我们都是你手的工作。 以赛亚书 64:8
Susan Marie and I each have a set of our own breakfast glasses, but because I can never remember whose is whose, she bought me half a dozen unique, clear glasses that leaned like the Tower of Pisa (or Fuzhou's Black Pagoda). I loved them! But they broke over the years, and when I was down to my last one I asked Sue to buy another set of leaning glasses.
Susan Marie laughed and said, "You can't buy anymore like those. They weren't designed that way--they were just rejects!"
No wonder she'd so generously bought me six of them. They weren't Designer Glasses but Defe
ctive Glasses--rejects of cheap clear glasses, sold for pennies apiece by a street vendor. It was a bit of a letdown--but only for a few moments.
Then I thought about how much fun I'd had over the years with them, watching the milk or juice fill unevenly (I know: simple minds, simple pleasures). And I realized that whether they leaned by design or defect did not matter. In fact, my last leaning glass was even more precious to me now because I knew I'd never see another one.
I treated my last leaning glass as if it were exquisite lead crystal from Bavaria, but in the end it was broken, and I was forced to drink my breakfast juice from unimaginative humdrum vertical glasses like other mortals. But our Father has a sense of humor, and enjoys nothing more than surprising his children.
Just weeks after I broke my last leaning glass, Sue returned home with a surprise--another half dozen leaning glasses exactly like the ones she'd given me years earlier! I said, "Verily I say unto you, if you give a cup of cold water in my name, you shall not lose your reward--especially if it is in a leaning glass!"
It's all perspective. I thought my breakfast glasses were uniquely designed and it turned out they were just defective, but the end result was the same. It was not the glasses themselves but how I looked at them that gave me enjoyment.
Designer or Defective Lives? My life often leans a lot more than my breakfast glass. I can choose to complain about it, or I can appreciate the unique beauty and opportunities that my uniquely leaning life offer me. My life is not perfect but it is certainly unique--as one-of-a-kind as a six-pointed snowflake.
5-Pointed Snowflakes. Scientists say that with trillions and gazillions of snowflakes, no two are alike. Hard to believe. But if we did find a five-pointed snowflake, would we cast it off as defective? Of course not! We'd treasure it even more than a 5-leaf clover. We'd photograph it, enlarge it, and hang it on the wall as a reminder of its very unique but fragile and transient beauty, and the snowflake itself we'd enshrine in cryogenic storage with more care than they lavish on Lenin, Mao and other extinquished revolutionaries.
Each of our lives is as uniquely beautiful as a snowflake, and while it may be as "defective" as a 5-pointed snowflake, it is our very "defects" that give rise to our unique strengths as we learn and grow and overcome the constraints that we all face.
But like a snowflake, our lives are also fragile and transient. Enjoy it.
www.amoymagic.com
"Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." Isaiah 64:8
耶和华阿，现在你仍是我们的父。我们是泥，你是窑匠。我们都是你手的工作。 以赛亚书 64:8
Susan Marie and I each have a set of our own breakfast glasses, but because I can never remember whose is whose, she bought me half a dozen unique, clear glasses that leaned like the Tower of Pisa (or Fuzhou's Black Pagoda). I loved them! But they broke over the years, and when I was down to my last one I asked Sue to buy another set of leaning glasses.
Susan Marie laughed and said, "You can't buy anymore like those. They weren't designed that way--they were just rejects!"
No wonder she'd so generously bought me six of them. They weren't Designer Glasses but Defe
ctive Glasses--rejects of cheap clear glasses, sold for pennies apiece by a street vendor. It was a bit of a letdown--but only for a few moments.Then I thought about how much fun I'd had over the years with them, watching the milk or juice fill unevenly (I know: simple minds, simple pleasures). And I realized that whether they leaned by design or defect did not matter. In fact, my last leaning glass was even more precious to me now because I knew I'd never see another one.
I treated my last leaning glass as if it were exquisite lead crystal from Bavaria, but in the end it was broken, and I was forced to drink my breakfast juice from unimaginative humdrum vertical glasses like other mortals. But our Father has a sense of humor, and enjoys nothing more than surprising his children.
Just weeks after I broke my last leaning glass, Sue returned home with a surprise--another half dozen leaning glasses exactly like the ones she'd given me years earlier! I said, "Verily I say unto you, if you give a cup of cold water in my name, you shall not lose your reward--especially if it is in a leaning glass!"
It's all perspective. I thought my breakfast glasses were uniquely designed and it turned out they were just defective, but the end result was the same. It was not the glasses themselves but how I looked at them that gave me enjoyment.
Designer or Defective Lives? My life often leans a lot more than my breakfast glass. I can choose to complain about it, or I can appreciate the unique beauty and opportunities that my uniquely leaning life offer me. My life is not perfect but it is certainly unique--as one-of-a-kind as a six-pointed snowflake.
5-Pointed Snowflakes. Scientists say that with trillions and gazillions of snowflakes, no two are alike. Hard to believe. But if we did find a five-pointed snowflake, would we cast it off as defective? Of course not! We'd treasure it even more than a 5-leaf clover. We'd photograph it, enlarge it, and hang it on the wall as a reminder of its very unique but fragile and transient beauty, and the snowflake itself we'd enshrine in cryogenic storage with more care than they lavish on Lenin, Mao and other extinquished revolutionaries.
Each of our lives is as uniquely beautiful as a snowflake, and while it may be as "defective" as a 5-pointed snowflake, it is our very "defects" that give rise to our unique strengths as we learn and grow and overcome the constraints that we all face.
But like a snowflake, our lives are also fragile and transient. Enjoy it.
www.amoymagic.com
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Perfectly Imperfect
Bill Brown 。。。 Xiamen University
"Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded..." Philippians 3:15 KJV 所以我们中间凡是完全人，总要存这样的心。腓利比书3:15
"If others succeed with 10 efforts, use 100; if they succeed with 100 efforts, use 1000. Thus even dull become smart, and the weak, strong." Confucius, "The Mean" 人一能之，已百之；人十能之，已千之。果能此道矣，虽愚必明，虽柔必强。
Paul's "as many as are perfect" phrase worried me during my youth because I knew that I was far from perfect (完全)! Fortunately, it is clear from the rest of Paul's writings that he that even he himself was not perfect, and in the following verse he said, "Only let us live up to what we have already attained. "然而我们到了什么地步，就当照着什么地步行。腓利比书3:16
Or consider the preceding two verses: "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13,14
Paul did not just "forget" what was behind, but was continually "forgetting" what was behind. This was because every day he made mistakes, so every day he "died daily," put his past behind him, learned from it, and pressed on--like James, who wrote so eloquently of such weaknesses as our tongue...
James said that "no man can control the tongue" [3:8 惟独舌头没有人能制伏，雅各书3:8], and that a person who was faultless in speech was perfect. But of course we cannot be perfect even in our speech, which is why I can start every day with a heaping bowl of Daily Noodles and Good Intentions, and end up not just eating my Noodles but eating my words as well (which aren't always so sweet).
Daily I am faced by the consequences of my many imperfections--my thoughts, my words, my deeds (or lack of them), but this does not discourage me because 1) I at least know that I'm imperfect, and 2) the fact that I am now imperfect means I am a "work in progress." I won't be like this forever because I am growing, learning, and becoming. And that gives me hope and purpose, and so I don't wallow in my regrets or compare myself with others but press on trying to "live up to what I have already attained"--as little as it is!
Like Paul, I will forget what is behind and press forward--and if I seem to have a harder time than others in reaching the goal, I will remind myself of Confucius' wise words: "If others succeed with one effort, use one hundred efforts; if they succeed with one hundred efforts, use one thousand efforts. This way, even the dull will become intelligent, and the weak become strong." 人一能之，已百之；人十能之，已千之。果能此道矣，虽愚必明，虽柔必强。
We of course rely upon His strength, not our own--but it is a partnership. We, not God, are the ones forgetting what is behind and pressing forward. Just make sure we're pressing forward in His direction.
it also requires OUR effort and persistence. As Paul said, WE are the ones who forget that is behind and press forward.
Related Blog: "Why Lao-Tzu was Wrong about the 1000 Miles"
www.amoymagic.com
"Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded..." Philippians 3:15 KJV 所以我们中间凡是完全人，总要存这样的心。腓利比书3:15
"If others succeed with 10 efforts, use 100; if they succeed with 100 efforts, use 1000. Thus even dull become smart, and the weak, strong." Confucius, "The Mean" 人一能之，已百之；人十能之，已千之。果能此道矣，虽愚必明，虽柔必强。
Paul's "as many as are perfect" phrase worried me during my youth because I knew that I was far from perfect (完全)! Fortunately, it is clear from the rest of Paul's writings that he that even he himself was not perfect, and in the following verse he said, "Only let us live up to what we have already attained. "然而我们到了什么地步，就当照着什么地步行。腓利比书3:16
Or consider the preceding two verses: "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13,14
Paul did not just "forget" what was behind, but was continually "forgetting" what was behind. This was because every day he made mistakes, so every day he "died daily," put his past behind him, learned from it, and pressed on--like James, who wrote so eloquently of such weaknesses as our tongue...
James said that "no man can control the tongue" [3:8 惟独舌头没有人能制伏，雅各书3:8], and that a person who was faultless in speech was perfect. But of course we cannot be perfect even in our speech, which is why I can start every day with a heaping bowl of Daily Noodles and Good Intentions, and end up not just eating my Noodles but eating my words as well (which aren't always so sweet).
Daily I am faced by the consequences of my many imperfections--my thoughts, my words, my deeds (or lack of them), but this does not discourage me because 1) I at least know that I'm imperfect, and 2) the fact that I am now imperfect means I am a "work in progress." I won't be like this forever because I am growing, learning, and becoming. And that gives me hope and purpose, and so I don't wallow in my regrets or compare myself with others but press on trying to "live up to what I have already attained"--as little as it is!
Like Paul, I will forget what is behind and press forward--and if I seem to have a harder time than others in reaching the goal, I will remind myself of Confucius' wise words: "If others succeed with one effort, use one hundred efforts; if they succeed with one hundred efforts, use one thousand efforts. This way, even the dull will become intelligent, and the weak become strong." 人一能之，已百之；人十能之，已千之。果能此道矣，虽愚必明，虽柔必强。
We of course rely upon His strength, not our own--but it is a partnership. We, not God, are the ones forgetting what is behind and pressing forward. Just make sure we're pressing forward in His direction.
it also requires OUR effort and persistence. As Paul said, WE are the ones who forget that is behind and press forward.
Related Blog: "Why Lao-Tzu was Wrong about the 1000 Miles"
www.amoymagic.com
The Mother of Mother's Day
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
Happy Mother's Day from Amoy!
I wrote this article for Common Talk in 2006.
When Anna May Jarvis's mother died on the second Sunday of May 1906, Anna May wished she had heeded the warning to, “Lavish your flowers on the living, not the dead.” Driven by remorse, the gentle, easy going Anna May became obsessed with the desire to see her mother and motherhood honored throughout the world.
After a year’s planning, the first Mother's Day was celebrated on the second anniversary of her mother’s death, May 10, 1908, at St. Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where Anna’s mother had taught Sunday School. A year later, Philadelphia became the first city to proclaim an official Mother’s Day. Three years later, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed Public Resolution 25, establishing the second Sunday of each May as Mother's Day. And then, to everyone’s surprise, Anna May retired and spent the remaining 34 years of her life, and her fortune of over 100,000 dollars, fighting against Mother’s Day!
The problem was that from day one, Mother’s Day had become a great commercial extravaganza to boost the incomes of card and candy makers, and a salve to soothe the consciences of those who each May made mother a “queen for the day” but neglected her the other 364 days.
Anna May complained, “Mother’s Day has nothing to do with candy. Candy is junk. A maudlin, insincere printed card or a ready-made telegram means nothing except that you’re too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone else in the world. You ought to go home and see your mother on Mother’s Day. You ought to take her out and paint the town red...You ought to give her something useful, something permanent...Is she sleeping warm at night? Could she use an eiderdown? Maybe the stairs in her home need fixing...”
For 30 years, Anna May fought for the integrity of Mother’s Day. She finally died in a sanitarium — old, tired, deaf, blind, penniless, and having never married nor been a mother herself!
Sixty years later, mothers may be more neglected than ever. Statistics show one half of Americans, which of course includes one half of our mothers, live in poverty. Where are the children? More than ever, mothers deserve more than cards and candy one day a year and anonymity the other 364.
My appreciation of motherhood only began as I watched my wife, Susan Marie, in both sickness and health, unselfishly spend herself on her two sons (and her husband as well!). I also slowly came to better appreciate my own mother, and though she’s 12,000 miles away, I am now careful to not only send her the obligatory Mother’s Day card and flowers but also to regularly write and phone her.
Fortunately, most Common Talk readers are not 12,000 miles away from home! So as Mother's Day catches on in China, let us seek to make Mother’s Day not a card-and-candy substitute for well-deserved love but the crown and pinnacle of a full year’s expression of love and appreciation for the one who gave us life: our mother.
www.amoymagic.com
Happy Mother's Day from Amoy!
I wrote this article for Common Talk in 2006.
When Anna May Jarvis's mother died on the second Sunday of May 1906, Anna May wished she had heeded the warning to, “Lavish your flowers on the living, not the dead.” Driven by remorse, the gentle, easy going Anna May became obsessed with the desire to see her mother and motherhood honored throughout the world.
After a year’s planning, the first Mother's Day was celebrated on the second anniversary of her mother’s death, May 10, 1908, at St. Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where Anna’s mother had taught Sunday School. A year later, Philadelphia became the first city to proclaim an official Mother’s Day. Three years later, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed Public Resolution 25, establishing the second Sunday of each May as Mother's Day. And then, to everyone’s surprise, Anna May retired and spent the remaining 34 years of her life, and her fortune of over 100,000 dollars, fighting against Mother’s Day!
The problem was that from day one, Mother’s Day had become a great commercial extravaganza to boost the incomes of card and candy makers, and a salve to soothe the consciences of those who each May made mother a “queen for the day” but neglected her the other 364 days.
Anna May complained, “Mother’s Day has nothing to do with candy. Candy is junk. A maudlin, insincere printed card or a ready-made telegram means nothing except that you’re too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone else in the world. You ought to go home and see your mother on Mother’s Day. You ought to take her out and paint the town red...You ought to give her something useful, something permanent...Is she sleeping warm at night? Could she use an eiderdown? Maybe the stairs in her home need fixing...”
For 30 years, Anna May fought for the integrity of Mother’s Day. She finally died in a sanitarium — old, tired, deaf, blind, penniless, and having never married nor been a mother herself!
Sixty years later, mothers may be more neglected than ever. Statistics show one half of Americans, which of course includes one half of our mothers, live in poverty. Where are the children? More than ever, mothers deserve more than cards and candy one day a year and anonymity the other 364.
My appreciation of motherhood only began as I watched my wife, Susan Marie, in both sickness and health, unselfishly spend herself on her two sons (and her husband as well!). I also slowly came to better appreciate my own mother, and though she’s 12,000 miles away, I am now careful to not only send her the obligatory Mother’s Day card and flowers but also to regularly write and phone her.
Fortunately, most Common Talk readers are not 12,000 miles away from home! So as Mother's Day catches on in China, let us seek to make Mother’s Day not a card-and-candy substitute for well-deserved love but the crown and pinnacle of a full year’s expression of love and appreciation for the one who gave us life: our mother.
www.amoymagic.com
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Spears & Shields: Faith & Works
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do." James 2:17,18 这样信心若没有行为就是死的。必有人说，你有信心，我有行为。你将你没有行为的信心指给我看，我便藉着我的行为，将我的信心指给你看。雅各书2:17,18
"Heaven never helps the men who will not act." Sophocles
A Maodun in the Market The Chinese word for contradiction, Maodun, is made of the words "Mao" [spear] and "Dun" [shield]. In ancient times, a weapons merchant hawked both a sword that could penetrate anything and a shield that could stop anything. This of course led onlookers to ask what would happen if the unstoppable spear struck the impenetrable shield. It was a "maodun"--a contradiction, an impossibility--much like the maodun of "faith without works."
Faith without action is not merely dead but stillborn; it never lived. For how can faith not affect what we are, and what we are not affect what we do? Faith infuses us with the unstoppable force of life and direction. The visible manifestation of that unstoppable force of faith within us is the visible life we lead--our actions and works. Faith that has no power to change or direct is not faith (unless we claim that the unstoppable force of faith has been stopped in its tracks by the impenetrable shield of the world--but is that possible?
We of course need both faith and actions. Ephesians 2:19 says works are not enough (lest we boast in them). But if a changed life does not follow the birth of faith, then there was no faith, or else it was faith in the wrong thing--perhaps faith in religion, rites, rituals, or even faith in ourselves.
Jesus' life and message is summed up by two words: love, and stewardship. We are to love our Heavenly Father, and to love others as ourselves, and we are to be wise stewards and bear fruit during the brief years we are allotted on this little planet.
Jesus said it is impossible for a good tree to bear bad fruit, or a bad tree to bear good fruit. How much more impossible is it for a good tree, rooted and nourished, to bear no fruit at all! If the tree bears no fruit, it is because it never took root, it has not received nourishment, it has refused training and pruning--or quite simply it is dead.
What actions? Brother Lawrence, the 17th century French monk, said "And it is not necessary to have great things to do. I turn my little omelette in the pan for the love of God...When I cannot do anything else, it is enough for me to have lifted a straw from the earth for the love of God."
When Jesus said we would be rewarded for giving a cup of cold water in his name, he did not mean for us to make a ritual of everything we do--tacking a "in Jesus name" onto every act to rack up Brownie points for heaven. He meant that, whatever our deeds, great or small, do them out of love, and we will reap the rewards of love.
The Spear of an Unstoppable Life If that unstoppable force of faith wells up within us, there is no impenetrable shield that can hinder our lives from bearing witness more eloquently than words alone of whom we love and live for. So don't just have faith but be faith and live faith.
An Excerpt from "Adventures in Contentment"
by David Grayson (quoted in Lin Yutang, "Between Tears and Laughter")
[The man said], "I have been a botanist for fifty-four years. When I was a boy I believed implicitly in God. I prayed to him, having a vision of him a person before my eyes. As I grew older I concluded that there was no God, I dismissed him from the universe, I believed only in what I could see, or hear, or feel. I talked about Nature and Reality."
He paused, the smile still lighting his face, evidently recalling to himself the old days. I did not interrupt him. Finally he turned to me and said abruptly, "And now it seems to me there is nothing but God."
"Without God, man cannot; without man, God will not." Anonymous
www.amoymagic.com
"In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do." James 2:17,18 这样信心若没有行为就是死的。必有人说，你有信心，我有行为。你将你没有行为的信心指给我看，我便藉着我的行为，将我的信心指给你看。雅各书2:17,18
"Heaven never helps the men who will not act." Sophocles
A Maodun in the Market The Chinese word for contradiction, Maodun, is made of the words "Mao" [spear] and "Dun" [shield]. In ancient times, a weapons merchant hawked both a sword that could penetrate anything and a shield that could stop anything. This of course led onlookers to ask what would happen if the unstoppable spear struck the impenetrable shield. It was a "maodun"--a contradiction, an impossibility--much like the maodun of "faith without works."
Faith without action is not merely dead but stillborn; it never lived. For how can faith not affect what we are, and what we are not affect what we do? Faith infuses us with the unstoppable force of life and direction. The visible manifestation of that unstoppable force of faith within us is the visible life we lead--our actions and works. Faith that has no power to change or direct is not faith (unless we claim that the unstoppable force of faith has been stopped in its tracks by the impenetrable shield of the world--but is that possible?
We of course need both faith and actions. Ephesians 2:19 says works are not enough (lest we boast in them). But if a changed life does not follow the birth of faith, then there was no faith, or else it was faith in the wrong thing--perhaps faith in religion, rites, rituals, or even faith in ourselves.
Jesus' life and message is summed up by two words: love, and stewardship. We are to love our Heavenly Father, and to love others as ourselves, and we are to be wise stewards and bear fruit during the brief years we are allotted on this little planet.
Jesus said it is impossible for a good tree to bear bad fruit, or a bad tree to bear good fruit. How much more impossible is it for a good tree, rooted and nourished, to bear no fruit at all! If the tree bears no fruit, it is because it never took root, it has not received nourishment, it has refused training and pruning--or quite simply it is dead.
What actions? Brother Lawrence, the 17th century French monk, said "And it is not necessary to have great things to do. I turn my little omelette in the pan for the love of God...When I cannot do anything else, it is enough for me to have lifted a straw from the earth for the love of God."
When Jesus said we would be rewarded for giving a cup of cold water in his name, he did not mean for us to make a ritual of everything we do--tacking a "in Jesus name" onto every act to rack up Brownie points for heaven. He meant that, whatever our deeds, great or small, do them out of love, and we will reap the rewards of love.
The Spear of an Unstoppable Life If that unstoppable force of faith wells up within us, there is no impenetrable shield that can hinder our lives from bearing witness more eloquently than words alone of whom we love and live for. So don't just have faith but be faith and live faith.
An Excerpt from "Adventures in Contentment"
by David Grayson (quoted in Lin Yutang, "Between Tears and Laughter")
[The man said], "I have been a botanist for fifty-four years. When I was a boy I believed implicitly in God. I prayed to him, having a vision of him a person before my eyes. As I grew older I concluded that there was no God, I dismissed him from the universe, I believed only in what I could see, or hear, or feel. I talked about Nature and Reality."
He paused, the smile still lighting his face, evidently recalling to himself the old days. I did not interrupt him. Finally he turned to me and said abruptly, "And now it seems to me there is nothing but God."
"Without God, man cannot; without man, God will not." Anonymous
www.amoymagic.com
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Tiger Zhou & the Preacher
Bill Brown ... ... Xiamen University
The beautiful South China tigers, or Amoy Tigers, in West Fujian's Meihua mountain reserve (in Longyan), remind me of the story of Tiger Zhou, from the 1930s (told in "Twice Born--and Then?" by Andrew Gih).
Tiger Zhou was a gang leader, and so hardened in heart that he threatened to kill his own father (unimaginable in China, a land in which filial piety is the foundation of society). After hearing a Chinese pastor in the countryside preaching, Tiger Zhou angrily told others, "He makes us all out to be sinners! If he keeps this up, I'll beat him." When the Chinese preacher heard this, he was frightened, so he prayed, but felt strongly to continue preaching the same message.
After the next evening's message, furious gang members told the preacher, "Last night we did not talk to you, but now we tell you that if you do not behave yourself, we will attend to you tomorrow."
The preacher decided to preach anyway and put everything in his Father's hands. The next night the place was packed as people from all over came to see Tiger Zhou and his band pummel the preacher. But at the end of the sermon, the preacher heard a scream, and saw a man had fallen to the ground, crying, "My sin, my sin." He ran to him and found it was Tiger Zhou! He confessed to the preacher how he had threatened to murder his father, and on the Chinese preacher's urging, he walked the several miles to his home the next day and asked his father's forgiveness, and healed the relationship not only with his father but with his Heavenly Father.
Tiger Zhou returned to the services the following night, and Andrew Gih (of the Bethel Band) wrote,
You and I have probably not fallen as far as the murderous Tiger Zhou, but we still fall short in other ways. What can change us? We may faithfully follow the 3,305 rules of Confucius, but in the end, like the great philosopher himself, we will find that even a lifetime of faithful outward observances of ritual will not change the inner heart. We are still tigers--or worse.
Confucius resorted to systems and government to change people. The Taoists, such as Lao Tse and Mencius, appealed to principles. But as great as Confucius, Lao Tse and Mencius were, they all admitted that they were unable to tame the tiger within. No wonder that China's ancient classics wrote that the people anxiously awaited the coming of the "virtuous Prince" who would save them from the guilt and punishment of their failings.
Tiger Zhou met that Prince, face-to-face--and found that the Prince did not come to tame the tiger but to complete it.
No Tame Tigers We cannot change ourselves any more than the leopard can change its spots, but that is okay because our Father made us tigers for a reason. And our Father does not want "tamed" tigers but obedient tigers--and there is a big difference. Tamed tigers are cowed, listless, purposeless, and obey their master out of fear. But obedience is willful and purposeful, born of love and respect and, above all, trust. We obey not just a master but a Father, and we trust that our obedience will not only bring joy to our Father but also, in the end, greater happiness and fulfillment in our lives than if we went the way of Tiger Zhou.
So if you're a tiger, be a tiger! But don't waste your strength and purpose like Tiger Zhou. Be a tiger with a purpose.
Supplement
"Tiger and Fox"--ancient Chinese Story.
A tiger was about to kill a fox when the fox said, "Stop! You can't touch me! I'm king of the forest and all creatures fear me!" The tiger laughed in disbelief, so the fox said, "Follow me and you'll see that I am feared by everyone." So the tiger followed the fox as he wandered up and down the forest paths, and sure enough, all of the forest creatures shrunk back in fear.
"It is true!" said the tiger. "You are feared by all! You must be king indeed." And so the tiger left the fox, totally unaware that the animals had been in mortal fear not of the fox but of the tiger walking behind him.
We may be like the fox--a small creature in a vast threatening woods, but we can choose to walk with Him who made the tiger--or choose to go it alone.
www.amoymagic.com
The beautiful South China tigers, or Amoy Tigers, in West Fujian's Meihua mountain reserve (in Longyan), remind me of the story of Tiger Zhou, from the 1930s (told in "Twice Born--and Then?" by Andrew Gih).
Tiger Zhou was a gang leader, and so hardened in heart that he threatened to kill his own father (unimaginable in China, a land in which filial piety is the foundation of society). After hearing a Chinese pastor in the countryside preaching, Tiger Zhou angrily told others, "He makes us all out to be sinners! If he keeps this up, I'll beat him." When the Chinese preacher heard this, he was frightened, so he prayed, but felt strongly to continue preaching the same message.After the next evening's message, furious gang members told the preacher, "Last night we did not talk to you, but now we tell you that if you do not behave yourself, we will attend to you tomorrow."
The preacher decided to preach anyway and put everything in his Father's hands. The next night the place was packed as people from all over came to see Tiger Zhou and his band pummel the preacher. But at the end of the sermon, the preacher heard a scream, and saw a man had fallen to the ground, crying, "My sin, my sin." He ran to him and found it was Tiger Zhou! He confessed to the preacher how he had threatened to murder his father, and on the Chinese preacher's urging, he walked the several miles to his home the next day and asked his father's forgiveness, and healed the relationship not only with his father but with his Heavenly Father.
Tiger Zhou returned to the services the following night, and Andrew Gih (of the Bethel Band) wrote,
"It takes the power of God to transform such a man's life. You may train the tiger; you may teach the tiger; but he will still be a tiger. It takes the power of God to transform livfes. Let us be faithful to God and to the souls before us."
You and I have probably not fallen as far as the murderous Tiger Zhou, but we still fall short in other ways. What can change us? We may faithfully follow the 3,305 rules of Confucius, but in the end, like the great philosopher himself, we will find that even a lifetime of faithful outward observances of ritual will not change the inner heart. We are still tigers--or worse.
Confucius resorted to systems and government to change people. The Taoists, such as Lao Tse and Mencius, appealed to principles. But as great as Confucius, Lao Tse and Mencius were, they all admitted that they were unable to tame the tiger within. No wonder that China's ancient classics wrote that the people anxiously awaited the coming of the "virtuous Prince" who would save them from the guilt and punishment of their failings.
Tiger Zhou met that Prince, face-to-face--and found that the Prince did not come to tame the tiger but to complete it.
No Tame Tigers We cannot change ourselves any more than the leopard can change its spots, but that is okay because our Father made us tigers for a reason. And our Father does not want "tamed" tigers but obedient tigers--and there is a big difference. Tamed tigers are cowed, listless, purposeless, and obey their master out of fear. But obedience is willful and purposeful, born of love and respect and, above all, trust. We obey not just a master but a Father, and we trust that our obedience will not only bring joy to our Father but also, in the end, greater happiness and fulfillment in our lives than if we went the way of Tiger Zhou.
So if you're a tiger, be a tiger! But don't waste your strength and purpose like Tiger Zhou. Be a tiger with a purpose.
Supplement
"Tiger and Fox"--ancient Chinese Story.
A tiger was about to kill a fox when the fox said, "Stop! You can't touch me! I'm king of the forest and all creatures fear me!" The tiger laughed in disbelief, so the fox said, "Follow me and you'll see that I am feared by everyone." So the tiger followed the fox as he wandered up and down the forest paths, and sure enough, all of the forest creatures shrunk back in fear.
"It is true!" said the tiger. "You are feared by all! You must be king indeed." And so the tiger left the fox, totally unaware that the animals had been in mortal fear not of the fox but of the tiger walking behind him.
We may be like the fox--a small creature in a vast threatening woods, but we can choose to walk with Him who made the tiger--or choose to go it alone.
www.amoymagic.com
Monday, May 4, 2009
Rev. John Sung: Gulangyu Miracles
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Hebrews 13:8 耶稣基督，昨日今日一直到永远是一样的。希伯来书 13:8
John Sung (click here for biography & photos), the famous Chinese evangelist from Fujian, is said by many to have been the greatest evangelist of the 20th century--perhaps surpassing even Billy Graham. But like most famous figures, he was controversial. Chinese flocked to hear him, but many foreigners, including missionaries, were not so enamored of him, as I learned when I interviewed two elderly Christians (brother and sister) on Gulangyu Islet, who shared with me about the John Sung service they attended, and of John Sung's unique preaching style--as well as the controversial healings.
I have seen amazing answers to prayer, but even so, I am skeptical of the "professional healers," so this story was especially interesting to me, and is a good reminder that our Father is indeed "the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow."
Interview of two eyewitnesses of John Sung's Gulangyu Service (1930s), Bill Brown, 2008
Gulangyu Brother: "We were junior high students when John Sung preached here on Gulangyu in the 1930s. Foreign missionaries did not like his style. They said he was too theatrical on stage. He was animated, and waved his arms about as he preached. He prayed for hours, and then preached for hours, but people could never get enough of his preaching.
"So many people went onto the stage for John Sung to pray for them that it was like an assembly line. They went up the left side of the stage, John Sung prayed for them, then he touched their forehead, and they would exit the right side of the stage. But many of them fainted when he touched their forehead, and someone would catch them. And after his services, there were crutches left by those who had been healed."
Bill Brown: "This sounds like a modern televangelist meeting to me! Were any healings really documented? Did you personally see any people that you know for sure were healed?"
Gulangyu Sister: "We were just children, and did not know most of the people. But one that for certain was healed was our school principal's son, who could not walk because of childhood illness [I was just told it was congenital, and he'd not walked since birth]. They wheeled him in his chair up the left side of the stage. John Sung prayed for him as quickly as he prayed for everyone else, and touched his forehead--and the boy got up out of his wheelchair and walked off the stage! So we don't know about the other healings, but that one healing was enough to shake up a lot of people on Gulangyu Islet!"
Related Link: "Water From a Chinese Rock"
Mr. Lim, who is writing a dissertation on John Sung, wrote the following about this famous healing:
"Following up on your interview account, I have actually met and interviewed (2003) the older brother of the young boy healed by Sung. The family's name is X.., I was told the boy was five years old and his father taught at the Anglo-Chinese School (some literature say college, but i know it's a high school, can you confirm?). Apparently he walked home by himself. His grandmother, though a faithful Christian, doubted the news she heard that the grandson could walk. Upon seeing the boy walking towards her house, she suddenly found that she could not utter a single word (literally). Realizing she was much like Zechariah of old who was mute due to his disbelief, she quickly knelt to confess her sin of disbelief. She regained her speech after that...
[The rest I have discretely left out; needless to say, this made a big impact upon the family, especially upon the healed boy's older brother, who is still alive today. It helped give him courage during the difficult 50s and 60s].
"Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize... Philippians 3:13,14 "弟兄们，我不是以为自己已经得着了。我只有一件事，就是忘记背后努力面前的，向着标竿直跑，要得神在基督耶稣里从上面召我来得的奖赏。" 腓利比书3:13,14
www.amoymagic.com
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Secret Giver at XICF Retreat
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Jesus, in Matthew 6:3,4 "你施舍的时候，不要叫左手知道右手所作的。要叫你施舍的事行在暗中，你父在暗中察看，必报答你。（有古卷作必在明处报答你） 马太福音6:3,4
Susan Marie has been hard at work pulling together the annual Xiamen International Christian Fellowship retreat, which this year will be held in a remote town (the very area ZhangzhouLin Yutang was born).
Our XICF numbers almost 200 some Sundays, with upwards of 50 children in the Awana Sunday School program. And many of the adults are students from Africa studying at XIamen University on Scholarship, and could not afford even the minimal cost of the retreat this year, so XICF has given scholarships to make sure money alone does not deter them from joining in (unfortunately, I can't go because I have classes all day Saturday, and cannot change them!).
One family in XICF gave Sue 1,000 Yuan as an anonymous gift to help those who could not afford to attend the retreat. But to our surprise, as Sue was finishing up some last minute paperwork for the retreat, she was that this family is only taking one room for 3 adults and 2 children! So obviously they themselves are not burdened with too much money--or else they just choose to be very good stewards of what they have.
I wish I could share the names of this family, but they chose to give as Christ commanded, in secret--and their reward will come not from men but from our Father.
Thank you, secret giver, for being a blessing to many this coming weekend at XICF. And thanks to all of those in XICF who, weekly, give of their time and skills, as well as their money, to make this fellowship such a special place.
Taste of Heaven Yesterday, three women shared their experiences with us, and one noted that she had never attended such a fellowship anywhere else in the world, with so many people from so many countries worshipping together. As she said, "XICF is a taste of heaven!"
www.amoymagic.com
"But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Jesus, in Matthew 6:3,4 "你施舍的时候，不要叫左手知道右手所作的。要叫你施舍的事行在暗中，你父在暗中察看，必报答你。（有古卷作必在明处报答你） 马太福音6:3,4
Susan Marie has been hard at work pulling together the annual Xiamen International Christian Fellowship retreat, which this year will be held in a remote town (the very area ZhangzhouLin Yutang was born).
Our XICF numbers almost 200 some Sundays, with upwards of 50 children in the Awana Sunday School program. And many of the adults are students from Africa studying at XIamen University on Scholarship, and could not afford even the minimal cost of the retreat this year, so XICF has given scholarships to make sure money alone does not deter them from joining in (unfortunately, I can't go because I have classes all day Saturday, and cannot change them!).
One family in XICF gave Sue 1,000 Yuan as an anonymous gift to help those who could not afford to attend the retreat. But to our surprise, as Sue was finishing up some last minute paperwork for the retreat, she was that this family is only taking one room for 3 adults and 2 children! So obviously they themselves are not burdened with too much money--or else they just choose to be very good stewards of what they have.
I wish I could share the names of this family, but they chose to give as Christ commanded, in secret--and their reward will come not from men but from our Father.
Thank you, secret giver, for being a blessing to many this coming weekend at XICF. And thanks to all of those in XICF who, weekly, give of their time and skills, as well as their money, to make this fellowship such a special place.
Taste of Heaven Yesterday, three women shared their experiences with us, and one noted that she had never attended such a fellowship anywhere else in the world, with so many people from so many countries worshipping together. As she said, "XICF is a taste of heaven!"
www.amoymagic.com
Success or Slavery?
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—--also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic." Numbers 11:5 我们记得，在埃及的时候不花钱就吃鱼，也记得有黄瓜，西瓜，韭菜，葱，蒜。民数记11:5
"Things done don't talk of; things completed don't cast blame; don't blame someone for the past." Confucius, Analects (Bayi:21) 子闻之曰：“成事不说，遂事不谏，既往不咎。”
Were Those the Days? In the late 90s, an elderly Chinese neighbor lamented to me, "I miss the great days of the 1950s! Life was simple, you didn't have to lock your door at night, no one would ever steal your bicycle! Not like today!"
Numbing Nostalgia. Nothing numbs memories better than nostalgia! It is true that few people stole bikes in the 1950s, but one reason was because few people could afford a bicycle, so anyone pedaling about town on a stolen bicycle would have stuck out like someone today driving around Xiamen in a stolen Maserati (though we do have a few now!).
There was, of course, a heady, fresh spirit in the New China of the 1950s. The Chinese had, at long last, created their Promised Land, but they had no ideas of the two difficult decades ahead of them before then began the amazing reforms of 1978. I think that my neighbor who longed for the 1950s, would not have cared to repeat the 60s and 70s. And I suspect that, if pressed, he would have admitted that the China of the 90s, where people had bicycles, fridges and televisions, was much better than the China of the 50s, when most people had a tough time finding food, much less a bicycle.
[Of course, today it is again hard to find bicycles--but that's because most people now have cars.]
It is tempting to idealize the past when swamped by the complexities of today and the uncertainties of tomorrow, but the past was never as good as we remembered it--as the Jews learned the hard way.
Slaves or Victors The children of Israel spent 40 years in the desert on their way to the Promised Land because they still had the mentality not of conquerors but of slaves. They faced problems not as opportunities to learn and grow but with complaints, and longings for the "free" fish and vegetables of Egypt. But the price of those "free" fish and vegetables had been mindless but relatively "secure" dawn-to-dusk slave labor in the fields and brickyards, and barely subsisting upon the "free" fish and vegetables scavenged from river and fields.
Success or Slavery? Do we see adversity as an opportunity to grow, or are we slaves to a past that never really existed--or perhaps slaves to our fears of the future? It is our choice.
Regardless of what we face today, today is the best day of our life because it is the only day we can do anything about. Yesterday is but water under the bridge. We should learn from it but not long for it. And tomorrow offers hope and a Promise, but only if we prepare for it today. So don't be slave to past or future but seize this day, and be thankful that every day is a new day--lest we end up like the poor guy in Groundhog Day who lived the same day over and over. (I certianly would not care to relearn the lessons of puberty, my first date, Air Force basic training, or my first year in China!).
Learn from yesterday--and then move on.
See The Night After Groundhog Day
www.amoymagic.com
"We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—--also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic." Numbers 11:5 我们记得，在埃及的时候不花钱就吃鱼，也记得有黄瓜，西瓜，韭菜，葱，蒜。民数记11:5
"Things done don't talk of; things completed don't cast blame; don't blame someone for the past." Confucius, Analects (Bayi:21) 子闻之曰：“成事不说，遂事不谏，既往不咎。”
Were Those the Days? In the late 90s, an elderly Chinese neighbor lamented to me, "I miss the great days of the 1950s! Life was simple, you didn't have to lock your door at night, no one would ever steal your bicycle! Not like today!"
Numbing Nostalgia. Nothing numbs memories better than nostalgia! It is true that few people stole bikes in the 1950s, but one reason was because few people could afford a bicycle, so anyone pedaling about town on a stolen bicycle would have stuck out like someone today driving around Xiamen in a stolen Maserati (though we do have a few now!).
There was, of course, a heady, fresh spirit in the New China of the 1950s. The Chinese had, at long last, created their Promised Land, but they had no ideas of the two difficult decades ahead of them before then began the amazing reforms of 1978. I think that my neighbor who longed for the 1950s, would not have cared to repeat the 60s and 70s. And I suspect that, if pressed, he would have admitted that the China of the 90s, where people had bicycles, fridges and televisions, was much better than the China of the 50s, when most people had a tough time finding food, much less a bicycle.
[Of course, today it is again hard to find bicycles--but that's because most people now have cars.]
It is tempting to idealize the past when swamped by the complexities of today and the uncertainties of tomorrow, but the past was never as good as we remembered it--as the Jews learned the hard way.
Slaves or Victors The children of Israel spent 40 years in the desert on their way to the Promised Land because they still had the mentality not of conquerors but of slaves. They faced problems not as opportunities to learn and grow but with complaints, and longings for the "free" fish and vegetables of Egypt. But the price of those "free" fish and vegetables had been mindless but relatively "secure" dawn-to-dusk slave labor in the fields and brickyards, and barely subsisting upon the "free" fish and vegetables scavenged from river and fields.
Success or Slavery? Do we see adversity as an opportunity to grow, or are we slaves to a past that never really existed--or perhaps slaves to our fears of the future? It is our choice.
Regardless of what we face today, today is the best day of our life because it is the only day we can do anything about. Yesterday is but water under the bridge. We should learn from it but not long for it. And tomorrow offers hope and a Promise, but only if we prepare for it today. So don't be slave to past or future but seize this day, and be thankful that every day is a new day--lest we end up like the poor guy in Groundhog Day who lived the same day over and over. (I certianly would not care to relearn the lessons of puberty, my first date, Air Force basic training, or my first year in China!).
Learn from yesterday--and then move on.
See The Night After Groundhog Day
www.amoymagic.com
Friday, May 1, 2009
MacDonald's Secret of Life
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 耶和华说，我知道我向你们所怀的意念是赐平安的意念，不是降灾祸的意念，要叫你们末后有指望。 耶利米书29:11
"The one secret of life and development is ..." George MacDonald (the rest is below)
When a Beijing radio station interviewed me a few months ago about my favorite book, movie and song, I easily picked "Lord of the Rings," (read the blog to see why). I could even narrow the movie down to my favorite line.
I was only nine when I first read the Lord of the Rings, and being one of the smallest kids in 3rd grade, I was heartened that the fellow chosen to save the day was an insignificant member of the smallest people of Middle-Earth, the Hobbits. Elrond said of these diminutive, peace-loving Hobbits, "This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields, to shake the towers and counsels of the Great. Who of all the Wise could have foreseen it?"
But of course my favorite part from the Rings film was:
Frodo: "I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."
Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought."
Over a century before Lord of the Rings was filmed, George MacDonald, whose writings most influenced C.S. Lewis, wrote something quite similar to Gandalf's speech:
"No man can order his life, for it comes flowing over him from behind...The one secret of life and development is not to devise and plan but to fall in with the forces at work--to do every moment's duty aright--that being the part in the process allotted to us: and let come--not what will, for there is no such thing--but what the eternal thought wills for each of us, has intended in each of us from the first." George MacDonald [327]
Ring Bearers We, like Frodo, have not only been Chosen for a 70-year Quest, but also Equipped to carry it out. Our Father asks but one thing of us, and no other--to never give up. Our only task is to accept the Ring handed to us and to bear it, in His strength and wisdom, not ours, to the end--which for those who complete the quest is but the Beginning.
Refusing the Quest Of course, we are not made to accept the ring, but if we do not, someone else will. And if we refuse to carry out the sole purpose for our brief life on this spinning little planet, we may well share the fate of the fig tree in the vineyard (Luke 13:6-9). But that is for another day.
Note: The George MacDonald quotes above are from C.S. Lewis' George MacDonald Anthology (365 daily quotes).
http://ourdailynoodles.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-favorite-book-movie-song.html
www.amoymagic.com
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 耶和华说，我知道我向你们所怀的意念是赐平安的意念，不是降灾祸的意念，要叫你们末后有指望。 耶利米书29:11
"The one secret of life and development is ..." George MacDonald (the rest is below)
When a Beijing radio station interviewed me a few months ago about my favorite book, movie and song, I easily picked "Lord of the Rings," (read the blog to see why). I could even narrow the movie down to my favorite line.
I was only nine when I first read the Lord of the Rings, and being one of the smallest kids in 3rd grade, I was heartened that the fellow chosen to save the day was an insignificant member of the smallest people of Middle-Earth, the Hobbits. Elrond said of these diminutive, peace-loving Hobbits, "This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields, to shake the towers and counsels of the Great. Who of all the Wise could have foreseen it?"
But of course my favorite part from the Rings film was:
Frodo: "I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."
Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought."
Over a century before Lord of the Rings was filmed, George MacDonald, whose writings most influenced C.S. Lewis, wrote something quite similar to Gandalf's speech:
"No man can order his life, for it comes flowing over him from behind...The one secret of life and development is not to devise and plan but to fall in with the forces at work--to do every moment's duty aright--that being the part in the process allotted to us: and let come--not what will, for there is no such thing--but what the eternal thought wills for each of us, has intended in each of us from the first." George MacDonald [327]
Ring Bearers We, like Frodo, have not only been Chosen for a 70-year Quest, but also Equipped to carry it out. Our Father asks but one thing of us, and no other--to never give up. Our only task is to accept the Ring handed to us and to bear it, in His strength and wisdom, not ours, to the end--which for those who complete the quest is but the Beginning.
Refusing the Quest Of course, we are not made to accept the ring, but if we do not, someone else will. And if we refuse to carry out the sole purpose for our brief life on this spinning little planet, we may well share the fate of the fig tree in the vineyard (Luke 13:6-9). But that is for another day.
Note: The George MacDonald quotes above are from C.S. Lewis' George MacDonald Anthology (365 daily quotes).
http://ourdailynoodles.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-favorite-book-movie-song.html
www.amoymagic.com
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